Ke Zhu (朱柯)^1,2, Jia Liu¹, Frédéric Moynier^2,3, Liping Qin^1,4, Conel M. O’D. Alexander⁵, and Yongsheng He⁴
Astrophysical Journal 873, 82 Link to Article [DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aafe79 ]
¹CAS Key Laboratory of Crust–Mantle Materials and Environment and CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, School of Earth and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People’s Republic of China
²Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Université Sorbonne Paris Cité, CNRS, 1 rue Jussieu, Paris F-75005, France
³Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
⁴State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, People’s Republic of China
⁵Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science, 5241 Broad Branch Road, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Chondrules are the main components of primitive meteorites and possibly the building blocks of planetary embryos and terrestrial planets. However, their ages and modes of formation are still highly debated. Here, we present high-precision Cr isotope data of nine chondrules from one of the more primitive chondrites, the CO3 chondrite Ornans. These chondrules define an external ⁵³Mn–⁵³Cr isochron, with an initial ⁵³Mn/⁵⁵Mn of (7.1 ± 1.6) × 10⁻⁶, corresponding to an age of 4567.6 ± 1.3 Ma when anchored to the angrite D’Orbigny (U-corrected). This age is within error of the age of formation of calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs). All chondrules show a wide range of ε ⁵⁴Cr values (+0.20 to +1.22) and a positive correlation between ε ⁵³Cr and ε ⁵⁴Cr values, suggesting mixing of different isotopic sources in the protoplanetary disk. This could reflect that silicate materials from the CAI-forming region (with complementary compositions to CAIs, i.e., low Mn/Cr and ε ⁵⁴Cr) were transported to the accretion region of the CO chondrite parent body and mixed with CI-like material (high-Mn/Cr and ε ⁵⁴Cr) during chondrule formation. Such mixing must have occurred prior to the formation of chondrule precursors. Furthermore, chondrules from chondrites with more CAIs (CV and CO) exhibit greater variability in ε ⁵⁴Cr than chondrules from chondrites formed later with fewer CAIs (e.g., CB and CR), suggesting that the accretion regions of the former received more material transported from the inner solar system than the latter. This dichotomy may indicate the CB and CR chondrites accreted at greater orbital distances than other chondrites.